Like many of you, I’m constantly looking for ways to be more productive. I’m easily distracted, so I've looked at ways to help me stay more focused. If you have the same problems, you might be interested in a couple steps I’ve taken to help me stay at the task at hand:

• Google is now my home page. This way, there are no distractions. I don’t have the latest news tidbit or “must-see” video or any links that take me away from the task at hand. It’s been a big help.
• I don’t have my email constantly downloading into my Outlook with notices on the bottom of my screen - I just check 2-3 times a day. In fact, after I download, I work offline so I'm not tempted to get sidetracked from the project at hand.

I'd love to hear ideas that you have implemented.

Today's articles also focus on being more productive. Let me know if you want help on either of these topics.

Helping Your Business Make Dollars and Sense with QuickBooks,
Monica

Most of my clients, as they are doing work, would love to find an easier or faster way to get their work done so they can focus on other aspects of their business. I've worked with a few clients who all had a similar need - they wanted to get information from either an outside program into QuickBooks or from one QuickBooks file to another. They had been manually entering transactions into QuickBooks.

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You might have routines and systems to help a new employee settle in, such as payroll forms and training manuals. You might also have some procedures set up for when you start doing business with new vendors, such as asking them for their tax ID paperwork and having them submit invoices to your standards. But what about onboarding new clients? Most entrepreneurs don’t think about systematizing that process.

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